Bodyguard Is Convicted in Case With Links to Drug Agent's Death

Special to The New York Times

Published: August 7, 1990

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6—
A Federal jury in Los Angeles has convicted the last of a group of four defendants charged with a number of crimes that included the kidnapping and killing of a United States drug agent in Mexico.

Jurors convicted Javier Vasquez Velasco, described as a bodyguard for a drug trafficker, of two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering in the killing of two tourists who were mistaken for agents of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Vasquez Velasco was tried with three others accused of the kidnapping of Enrique Camarena Salazar, an agent who was abducted in Guadalajara, then tortured and killed at a ranch outside the city in 1985.

Mr. Vasquez Velasco was not charged with acts directly tied to Mr. Camarena's death, but the prosecution argued that he took part in a campaign to intimidate United States drug agents gathering information on a narcotics organization in Guadalajara.

He was convicted of participating in the beating deaths of two tourists who inadvertently entered a restaurant where leaders of the narcotics ring were celebrating a marriage. The tourists were mistaken for drug agents.

Sentencing was set for Oct. 29. Mr. Vasquez Velasco faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Thornburgh Hails Outcome

''There is justice in the fact that many of those responsible for the brutal kidnapping, torture and murder of Special Agent Camarena have now been held accountable for their dreadful acts,'' Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said in a statement from Washington and that was released here.

None of the defendants were convicted of murder. ''There was no testimony that convicted them of the murder directly,'' said Duane Wood, a juror. Lawyers for all the defendants said they would appeal.

The conviction of Mr. Vasquez Velasco ended a trial that lasted two months.

Jurors said they were sharply divided on the reliability of a central Government informant, Hector Cervantes Santos, who testified against all four defendants. They said they had resolved that division by turning to circumstantial evidence that supported his testimony.

Earlier in the trial, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez and Ruben Zuno Arce, the brother-in-law of a former Mexican President, were convicted of kidnapping Mr. Camarena.

Still pending is the trial of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, a Guadalajara gynecologist who has also been charged in the Camarena case.